Florida sixth grader Josh Sommer is upset that a school assignment has left him with a bloody scabbed fingertip.

Anna Garrett, a teacher at Burns Middle School in Brandon, Fla., handed students corrected spelling exams and told students to trace each corrected word five times on sandpaper, five times a day for five consecutive days. Josh, 11 years old, tells WFTS that his finger started to bleed by the 125th repetition.

"Then by the end of the time, my whole table was bleeding," he told WFTS. When students complained about the pain, the teacher reportedly told the children to sit down and keep quiet. "I didn't want to get yelled at by my teacher."

Parents are accusing Garrett, an educator of 27 years, of abusing children. She is on paid administrative leave until school officials complete an investigation and determine whether to bring her back into the classroom. The local sheriff's office is also investigating the incident.

2. was she a christian?

55. Personally, I wonder if there wasn't somekind of Christian fad to "save America" by teaching in

its public schools - perhaps it was some years ago and kind of synched up with what is a fairly documentable Christian push to "save America" by getting on school boards, only the "teacher vocation" was for MORE "Christian" mommies and succeeded pretty well on the fact that they were therefore available to their own children when they weren't in school.

139. Maybe that's where she got the idea

155. or maybe she got it from the US government's Head Start website. Or any one of a million other

reputable education resources.

Alphabet Knowledge Strategies

To teach the alphabet

Display the alphabet in the classroom at children's eye level. Place letters where children see them, touch and manipulate them (for instance, magnetic or sandpaper letters), and use them where they work and play.

18. that is why I said "looks like" and "until more comes out"

I know teachers are under siege, but that doesn't mean there aren't actual mistakes made from time to time. Maybe the post just below mine was right and super duty sandpaper was involved rather than fine grit.... or something.

163. I'm glad you brought that up.

Maybe you should think about the gun banners before you post another 'bad teacher' story.

I want more information. I want to know what we can do to keep our kids and ourselves safe while preserving the rights of Americans to be responsible gun owners. I realize it's a complex issue and my friends who own guns are all responsible citizens who carefully lock up their weapons and would never use them to harm another human being. I would never support any plan to take their guns away.

I also have spent 30 years in education, doing work that is incredibly stressful and intensely rewarding. I have shared the expertise I have here on this thread in an attempt to explain that yes, there is an appropriate use for sandpaper in our classrooms. Did this teacher use it inappropriately? I don't know. I've been teaching long enough to know better than to take the word of an 11 year old - or several 11 year olds - who are on the TV complaining about their mean teacher.

162. yet 3 year olds can do it without injury.

142. If it was more than one kid

it was a group at a table doing it on purpose for some reason. There is no way a kid that age is going to know not to rub their finger against sandpaper hard enough to bleed. This story is stupid. I can't get over it. This is a very very common teaching method, not even some "outside the box" thing like it says in the article, except I think it's more commonly used for younger kids. My kids both did it in preschool and never bled. They were like 4 or something and knew not to press their fingers down that hard.

Some classes I see at the bathroom, washing their hands, taking care of business, right before they come into lunch. But kids in those very classes ask - EVERY DAY - if they can leave the cafeteria to use the restroom, because "my teacher wouldn't let me go".

87. I teach younger students. I wouldn't make them do 125 words ever, even on regular paper.

I have no idea if that is excessive for middle school. I've never taught middle school so I don't judge those teachers. But my dad was a middle school principal and he often talked about what a difficult age group it was.

98. 25 a day, and not all at once.

147. It wasn't 125 at a time

it was less than that, but the whole point of doing it is to have some repetition. Both my kids did this, and much much younger than 6th grade - more like preschool - and both knew enough at that age to not hurt themselves doing it. I mean they're pressing down their own fingers. It isn't hard to just not press down ridiculously hard. You'd have to work at it to hurt yourself.

10. maybe the wrong grit was used??

69. My suspicion is that the kids pressed too hard.

And by that I don't mean to say that I think the kids pressed really really hard. I just think that they started out not realizing how many times even a moderate rub would add up and how it would feel. Their assignment meant rubbing however many words they got wrong x 125.

57. I've never heard of it.

Now I'm trying to imagine how it helps with spelling. Would you mind explaining the process to me? When I read the OP I assumed the sandpaper exercise was punishment for spelling a word wrong. With your responses, however, it appears to be a learning tool.

62. It's called tactile learning. Also referred to as kinesthetic.

Any time you connect visual (which is how spelling is taught) to tactile, or touch, you increase the opportunity for permanence - or something we remember. Primary teachers do it every day. Feel the letters as you do when you trace them on sandpaper, and you're more likely to remember them. I've also used raised letters, which I make from several layers of liquid glue allowed to dry until you have created a raised surface over the image of the letter. There is also raised line paper which helps the children learn to write in a specific space, like the lines on a paper. I used to buy it but it was very expensive so when they cut our budgets I started making my own using liquid glue traced over the lines on the paper. This gives them visual and physical boundaries to help them learn to write within the lines.

But yes, I use sandpaper letters nearly every day with my kids who are still learning their letters. They're easier to make than the raised letters and it's a method that works (or I wouldn't do it).

Other kinesthetic methods include tracing the forms of the letters on the student's back. But as soon as a student complains that his teacher was touching his back, then we'll probably have an OP here claiming a teacher was hurting a child. That seems to be the pattern at least.

204. Why yes I do know what the "true Montessori method" is

a bunch of bunk. If you use the "true" method you do not make any child do anything. They happen on it themselves. You would not have to force sandpaper letters (shudders) for no kid would be forced to do anything. Ah the Montessori method where 12 years olds don't have to know how to read.

We don't believe in unschooling, homeschooling or the Montessori method. So you can see your little taunt to me was for nought. Nice debating though.

137. That's interesting, since they're specifically mentioned on the government's Head Start webpage.

Strategies to Promote Alphabet Knowledge

- Display the alphabet in the classroom at children's eye level. Place letters where children see them, touch and manipulate them (for instance, magnetic or sandpaper letters), and use them where they work and play.

191. Not all Head Start employees look at the website for curriculum ideas.

We have lots of resources other than that but I`ll check it out. We use magnetic letters in my classroom and have the children write in shaving cream on a table. I just had never heard of the sandpaper letters but as I said that does not mean some teachers are not using this in their classrooms.

202. Well, it is important to check what is in the product that you use. I`ve never had a kid eat it but

I`m certain it could happen. We are now using something called silly foam or something like that but not because of children eating it but due to the scent put in the shaving cream. I think there are arguments to be made for and against most teaching methods. I`m not sold on the sandpaper but I`ll look into it.

12. Kinesthetic learning is a valid educational tool. For some kids, it's the best way ...

to learn. I have used sandpaper letters in my classroom to good effect. I can see where repeated tracings could possibly draw blood, if a lot of pressure was applied; but I have never had a student get so much as a slight abrasion via this technique. The child is supposed to lightly rest a finger on the sandpaper and trace the letters or numbers.
Something about this story doesn't add up.

70. I'm saying kids have been known to exaggerate.

Happened to a friend just recently. She sat at home for several months while an allegation made by a student was investigated. He had made it up, finally admitted it, and the teacher was allowed to go back to work.

Note I am not accusing EVERY kid who has ever reported abuse of lying. I would imagine the majority are being honest. But yes, some do indeed exaggerate. I am willing to bet every teacher in every school can report an incidence of a kid exaggerating or falsely reporting abuse by a parent or teacher. Yes, it does happen. That's why I am saying I will wait for the investigation before I demand this teacher be fired and/or lose her teaching credentials.

19. Writing it that many times would've done some good.

"Techniques" like this are ridiculous nonsense.

It's shocking to think that numerous generations before this learned how to write and learned how to spell without sandpaper... and yet they learned those skills better than students today... I wonder why that is?

Maybe concentrating on the "what" of learning instead of the "how" made some difference. We are process-obsessed. And content-challenged.

24. Maria Montessori

How many generations of our children have her schools taught?

Sandpaper letters and writing are some of her most widely practiced techniques.

So no, we haven't really educated generations without sandpaper. If you went to preschool you probably used sandpaper letters since Montessori techniques and resources have been widely adopted by most of our preschools.

34. Excuse me, I was taught without sandpaper, and I'm not that old.

Montessori was a fringe system until about the 70s in the Balto/DC area, which is hardly backward. So no, it hasn't been around all that long. Meanwhile, since the 70s when it and similar ideas became "in", there has been a steady decline in writing and spelling ability.

So in all the decades before that, believe it or not, people learned without sandpaper. Do you think George Washington, and Abe Lincoln, and FDR learned with sandpaper? No, they didn't, trust me on that. I'm really kind of shocked that anybody thinks this is the only way to teach, or even the best way. It's no wonder that education has sunk to a very sad state. (As in, "going in the wrong direction"?)

66. Really?

Scary? Look, I usually have teachers' backs, but I don't think disagreeing with a (literally) harsh method is some threat to the teaching community. I'd never heard of this practice before, and I'm sure most parents haven't either. It sounds as absurd as smacking knuckles with a ruler.

153. This is not at all harsh

It's just a bit tactile for tactile learners. It helps some kids remember better. It's been done for ages. Have you ever touched sandpaper - and they use fine sandpaper for htis. You'd have to work at it to hurt yourself running your finger over it. My kids both did this in preschool, so like at age 4, and they knew enough to rub but not press down that hard. I mean really, get some fine sandpaper and rub your finger across it. Or an emery board even. It is not harsh in the slightest.

39. it's 'evidant,' is it? actually, research says otherwise. despite what you read in the popular

43. "Research" can say a lot of things.

Defending failed systems is why we're failing at so many things. If you think public education today is doing a great job compared to the 60s, which by my observation was the high water mark for it, then we'll just have to agree to disagree.

47. yes, phoney media-generated 'research' can say stupid things like the 60's was the high-water

The national assessment of educational progress has been given since 1971. It's the best test of national student achievement there is, and the results show that *despite* the fact that schools are dealing with a larger & poorer pool of children and a *much* higher % of minority students, achievement has risen.

Furthermore, it shows that the black-white achievement gap has *narrowed*.

110. You have got to be kidding

Back in the early 60s girls weren't taught higher math or science they had to concentrate on home ec and such. Back in the 60s we had prayer in schools, children had corporal punishment etc. Desks were in a line to emulate the assembly line. You didn't talk, certainly didn't question a teacher. Thank goodness we have moved away from that.

The good old days weren't that good. The Montessori method is bullshit.

51. In all fairness to the teacher...

She did supply the sandpaper, and didn't make the kids pay for it. That's a welcome change from the notion that has caught on in the last few years that schools require the students to have their own supplies.

181. You just read the top post didn't you? You didn't read anything else in the thread.

58. I could be wrong, but I am calling BS on this one.

Seriously, a SIXTH grader managed to make his finger bleed by tracing letters with his fingertip on sandpaper? This strikes me as ridiculous. This kid was 11 years old, not two.

So... I did an experiment, and I invite you to do the same. Go grab a piece of sandpaper and get sanding. Sand your fingertip, start writing words, and see for yourself how easy or difficult it is to accomplish what this kid did. Warning: Stop when you hit bone!

In the meantime, I am calling BS. This kid missed five words on his test and he's mad at his mean teacher.

73. Well:

This is the second time in four months that Burns Middle School has drawn attention. In September, teachers were asked to be more sensitive after one staff member used a Ouija board as a prop.

The sandpaper incident also follows criticism of district incompetence in light of the deaths of two special needs students, and the arrest of a teacher for shoving her shoe in the face of a student with autism.
...

They were instructed to trace each word five times. By the 125th word, Josh says his finger started to bleed.

93. I just tested it again, longer this time.

NOTE: the kid's story could be true. For all we know she's a freaking psycho and she grabbed the kids hand and ground it to the bone. With that out of the way...

I just did another test prior to writing this post. Here are my non-scientic and limited results.

1. I only wrote 60 words (I got bored)
2. I used the same finger the entire time
3. I made no effort to write lightly -- I was going for speed
4. When I really got flying my finger felt some heat burn that ended as soon as I slowed down or reduced pressure (and its gone now)
5. My finger shows no signs of any injury, no discoloration, it's possible I sanded off some skin but I can't see any missing
6. A child (or adult) in pain could and would change fingers, and would make an effort to reduce pressure if it started to hurt, let alone bleed

I could imagine that if one were forced to do this every day, 125 words each day, that by the end of the week one's fingers might be tender. It's POSSIBLE. I have no interest in finding out. Since I am not a teacher I cannot comment on the merit of this method versus just writing the words on paper.

I am still more inclined to believe that this was a young guy who was angry at his teacher and making a scene. But again, I could be wrong.

94. But again, was not just the one student that complained

He was the only one covered in the story.

And kids can be scared/influenced and not do things like let up out of fear.

You can see the abrasion on his finger in the video and get more details.

Growing up in Ohio and being involved in public schools here over the year, in california, and home schooling this is the first time I have ever even heard of this technique. I also used to work for McGraw-Hill and can't recall seeing anything like that there (though I mainly handled the books we did sometimes get requests from the catalogs for classroom supplies - but the ones that mapped to our programs never had anything like that either that I recall seeing).

140. More her (including that the teacher had previously thrown a shoe at a student)

Maybe she was teaching them to play catch...

that his finger started to bleed by the 125th repetition.

So 25+ plus words 5 times > 125

"According to student reports and parental complaints"

""There are some students complaining that it hurt their fingers and we don't think that's a good way to learn," (School spokesman Steve Hegarty - note he used the plural)

We checked Garrett's personnel file. Her most recent available evaluation rates her "satisfactory." But in 2001, school district officials say she received a letter of caution for throwing a soft shoe at a student.

"They were instructed to trace each word five times. By the 125th word, Josh says his finger started to bleed."

179. Fair enough, but again I am urging you to test this yourself.

Compared to what she was asking this boy to do, I freaking powersanded my finger. And this is a fact -- until I clicked on the "MY POSTS" tab at the top of this page I had completely forgotten my experiment.

132. there are a lot of teacher-bashing threads at DU, so maybe not *every* one. but often enough that

146. backing the truck up a bit?

I used to chime in on DU2 when there was a certain poster who continually mislead by her headlines and interpretations of stories and would never admit or apologize when proven beyond a doubt she was wrong.

anyway, that was a long time ago and I really don't dislike teachers as a whole (although I probably complained about my useless stupid assed ones) and recognize that it is a very difficult job under crazy difficult circumstances.

Here on DU3 I doubt if I commented on a 'teacher bashing' post more than a hand full, if that.

111. probably some kind of broadie-bushie administrator, judging from his ignorance about his own field.

A children's favorite because it's fun and a teacher's favorite because it works magically! By engaging the senses in fingertips, motion of the hand, and muscle of the arm, children quickly master letter recognition.

In point of fact, the people on this thread screaming "Lock her up!" aren't interested in the facts, they're pushing an agenda. There are literally a million hits on the internet about "sandpaper letters", but they aren't interested.

They prefer to paint the 27-year veteran teacher as an incompetent sadist based on a report out of florida. which has been reported quite differently in different media accounts (they had to do 125 words in one sitting -- oh, wait, it was 5 sittings a day over 5 days!)

It's a hell of a lot more likely that she's being pushed out because she's got so many years in and actually knows how to teach. Being that it's florida.

the geniuses on this board would prefer to sit a young child at a computer 8 hours a day and do drill & kill with a little 'reward' video game at the end. that's their idea of childhood development and educational 'innovation'.

158. I'm weirded out by the idea of

someone who has worked in education for long enough to be promoted to that level who hasn't heard of this. You can buy these letters some places. It's like flash cards but tactile. It is so not a big deal to use them.

This whole thread is crazy. This is my list of crazy threads. It's like being upset that kids have sharp tips on their pencils because some kids were sitting around a table playing a game where they stabbed themselves stupidly with their pencils.

126. I head she made them carve the alphabet into each other's stomachs. And then eat the cutouts.

136. The article makes it sound like Delores Umbridge making Harry Potter write

sentences with a pen that carved the words into his arm.

But no, I really doubt a teacher was shaving down her students' fingers to punish them for not knowing a letter. I need to look back and see who reported this because it sounds like the least likely thing I've read in a long time. There's so much teacher bashing going on in news over the past few years, and this sounds like more of it.

178. yes, a couple of posters compared this teacher to Delores Umbridge in all seriousness.

193. actually my post on that subject was poorly delivered snark

...just for clarification. Umbridge was the first thing that came to mind reading the article, and I thought it was sort of funny because the story was so bizarre. I took some licks further down even though I did not ever in this thread call the teacher a moron or call for revocation of her credentials, jailing, etc This thread has been an eye opener. I guess I don't read that many teacher/school threads and didn't realize the history. This has blown up into way more than I expected. Live and learn, I guess.

131. How hard were they doing it?

This is crazy. This is a really common way to teach letter recognition, and both of my kids' preschools have done it. Kids just lightly run their fingers along the sandpaper - they don't like rub off part of their fingers. The texture is supposed to somehow make it more easily remembered. I don't know how well it works but I know it's crazy common and I've never heard of kids rubbing their fingers hard enough to hurt themselves.

168. Who is doing that? We are presenting the teachers' side....that it is an accepted technique.

171. there are plenty of problems in education. i doubt very seriously that this teacher is one of them.

for anyone who actually knows anything about the subject, there are too many red flags in this story.

1. the various reports can't even get the story straight.
2. it's florida, capital of education deform.
3. the administrator acts like he never heard of this technique, though it's quite common (common enough to be mentioned on the government's Head Start website, for example; common enough that there are 1 million hits on the internet.)
4. She's a 27-year veteran teacher, with a satisfactory rating. The worst thing the papers can find on her is that she threw a 'soft shoe' at a student 11 years ago. Sorry, there are too many scenarios I can think of where such an incident could be completely innocuous.
5. if the boy's finger was burning, he could have stopped doing the exercise, or not pressed so hard (he was clearly pressing too hard). SHE WASN'T HOLDING DOWN HIS FINGER.
6. He says he came to her with a bleeding finger and she told him to sit down, shut up and do the work. I don't believe it. MANDATORY REPORTING OF ALL CLASSROOM INJURIES, AND ALL BLOOD EXPOSURE. A FIRING OFFENSE.

164. This thread is crazy

If you would have told me that there would be a thread expressing outrage over the use of something as common and that's been used as long as sandpaper letters, I would think you were joking. If you'd told me a bunch of people would agree that it was bad to use sandpaper letters, and even called it assault, I would also think you were joking.

Do people just not recognize normal and accepted teaching methods like this? These have been used for decades and there haven't been problems. If kids were bleeding on these, they'd have to be thrown out and wouldn't get used. But sandpaper isn't dangerous. This is just plain crazy.

None of the print reporting got it right; all exaggerated the number of times the child was supposed to do the task. All got it wrong in the same direction, which seems odd.

The assignment was to trace each missed word five times per day. NOT TO TRACE EACH WORD FIVE TIMES X FIVE TIMES A DAY.

I play the guitar too, Ed. And I get blisters too sometimes: when I play FOR HOURS after a long layoff when the callouses on my fingers haven't had a chance built up.

That's because I'm PRESSING DOWN VERY HARD ON THE STRINGS. not brushing them lightly.

Your guitar playing experience has nothing to do with this story. Teachers don't asks students to grind their fingers into the sandpaper, they ask them to trace a letter by skimming the surface of the paper.

197. I am not defending the teacher but

my oldest doughtier was severely dyslexic and one of the tricks that helped her the most was tracing letters in materials of all types of textures. We did sponge, sand and sand paper, velvet, we even used pudding on rare occasions. We traced letters once or twice a day and tried as many different feels as possible